3-ingredient dessert

This is a creamy dessert that you can either enjoy on its own or use it on top of biscuits or cake. It is also volatile since you can use whatever type of juice you like and make your own combinations. I used orange juice and it came out sweet and sour which is the way I prefer it. If you want it to be more sweet you can use apple juice.

Ingredients:

1 Liter juice (any type you want)
1/2 glass sugar (use more or less according to your taste)
6 full Tablespoons of Niseste flour (corn starch)

How to:

1. In a saucepan (medium heat) put the juice and the sugar. Stir until combined.

2. Using a whisk add the niseste. Stir well over medium-high fire for 4-5 minutes. At some point you will see the cream thicken. Stir for a few more seconds and remove from fire.

3. Pour in your pyrex either on its own or over cake or lady fingers.

ENJOY! :)

Chocolate Mosaic - As easy as it gets!

This is a great recipe for 3 reasons:

1. It's really easy to make
2. It's delicious
3. You can use it as a base for a birthday cake by giving it the shape you want and covering it with fondant.

Ingredients:

Plain biscuits 150 gr (I used Frou-Frou morning coffee, it's a Cypriot brand)
Chocolate spread - 400 fr (I used Nutella)
Milk - 1/3 of a glass
Cognac - 1 soup spoon

How to:

1. Take a bowl and break the biscuits in it. You want chunks but not too big ones. Mix the milk and the cognac and pour it over the cookies. Stir well.

2. Add the chocolate spread about 4/5 of the total. Leave some behind to use later. Stir well to mix the ingredients.

3. Take some baking paper to wrap the mixture and give it a shape. It's easier if you have a long deep tray. I don't so I did it manually :) Wrap it with some foil to keep it in place and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours. (I did it on my lunch break and finished it after work)

4. Unwrap it. Put it in a serving tray and spread the rest of the chocolate around it.

5. Serve and enjoy!

Tips for buying Furniture

As a sales assistant in the furniture industry I encounter people who come to buy furniture everyday. It is always a pleasure to be able to help them to find what they need and what will fit their houses and their personalities! Buying furniture should be a pleasant experience as you are creating your personal space that will reflect you as a person. The house needs to be a space that makes you feel happy to return to and change your mood towards the best. So here are my tips and advises for you when you decide to buy furniture:


Tip 1:

Always know your space. Measure it and make a draft plan of it. This will help both you and the seller know whether the sofa or table you liked can fit in the room and how much space it will leave you to move around. It is not important for it to look nice in the showroom but in your house!


Tip 2:

Which color?

Sofas with bright colors always look more impressive than sofas with neutral colors. There are no musts and don'ts when it comes to picking a color. What is important is to make sure that you are choosing a color that you will not be tired of. If you are a person who likes bright intense colors I say go for it. If not then go for a neutral color and leave the color for the decorative cushions. Neutral sofas can have more combinations so you can change your decoration as often as you want. On the other hand a sofa with bright colors like red, purple or green will need more plain cushions to tone them down. A medium solution would be a silver colored sofa like the one in the 3rd picture which still makes an impression and doesn't necessarily need cushions.

Tip 3:

Prefer extendable tables.

If there is not much space for a table buy a small that extends. This way you save space and still have the availability to sit more guests should the need arise. Ask the sales person how many chairs it can fit. There are chairs that take more space than others and as a result your table sits less people.

Tip 4:

Invest in a good mattress!

The bed may look good, may cost much or not but what will give you a good night's rest is the mattress. Try them, ask questions and make sure you get the one that you feel best on your body and not the most expensive one!

Tip 5:

Budget.

Whether strict or not if you do have a budget let the sales assistant know about it. They may help you by proposing alternative solutions or asking the manager for an extra discount :)


PS:
For the readers of this blog who need help in deciding which size or color their furniture must be, George offers a 3D plan of your space with the furniture you want for just 10 euros per room. If you need more information contact me!

PS 2: All the furniture pictures are taken from the website of Xinaris Home Collection

Fresh Homemade Lemonade within minutes!

It is so easy to make fresh lemonade and so simple and fast that once you make it for the first time you will make it again and again! There are no preservatives in it and you can enjoy it in the hot days of summer :)

Ingredients:

4 lemons (medium size)
Sugar

Water

How to:

Step 1:

Take the lemons and squeeze them to take the juice out. Remember to take the seeds out!

Step 2:

Pour the juice into a glass. Place a similar glass next to it and pour sugar in it until it reaches the same height as the juice.

Step 3:

Pour both glasses in a jug and stir well for a minute or so.

Step 4:

Add water give it a final stir and add ice. Serve and enjoy!

ps: Did I mention that it costs 1 euro??? ;)

Household items I cant live without - Part 1

There are items that I need to have on a daily basis at home because they are that useful. I can use them in many ways and make my life easier. Here are a few kitchen items that I always have at home. More will follow!


1. Non-stick baking paper

You will see in me use it in many of my recipes for various reasons. It makes the food healthier as I don't need to add oil for it not to stick, I can wrap the food inside to keep it moist and soft and most importantly it makes the cleaning afterwards much more easy as most of the stains are on the paper!

(You can find it in most supermarkets, I get mine from Alphamega)

2. Silicone spatula 

I own a thermomix that comes with its own spatula and I find that the silicone one I have is much more suitable for it. And it's not just the thermomix. I use it to cook, fry, stir and many more. What I like about it is that it is super easy to clean, can be used in multiple ways and it is light to hold.

3. My measuring bowl. 

I love my bowl! It holds up to 3 liters so I can use it to measure liquids, mix my ingredients and put it in the fridge it I need to. It is big enough so I use it both for foods and desserts and I don't know what I would do without it. Not to mention that it is great to use with the silicone spatula as it doesn't scratch it!

4. My roasting dish.

It's vintage, it has the right size when I want to cook for 2-4 people at a time and it goes in the oven and in the fridge. You will often see it in my recipes because it is one of my most trusted items :)

(Numbers 2+3+4 are all from our shop Xinaris) 

It is important for me to have items that have multiple uses since they take fewer space in my home and make everything much simpler. Stay tuned for more!

Chicken in the Oven

Chicken in the oven can be very easy and healthy! This recipe is very simple to make even for beginners! I have kept it very basic but like all recipes I post feel free to add ingredients you want like peppers, tomatoes or drizzle it with oil.

Ingredients:

Chicken breast - about 600 gr
2 large Potatoes
2 Onions
Salt / Pepper
Oregano (optional)

How to:

Preheat the oven at 180 C.

Get your roast dish ready! Cut the baking paper . It needs to be twice the size of the dish so you will be able to fold it afterwards. The excess paper should be half on each side like in the picture.

Cut the potatoes in half. Then cut in half again. Finally cut it in slices about 1.5 cm each. We need them to be this small to bake faster. Put them in the dish, add salt and using your hands stir them to get the salt everywhere.

Next cut the onions. I like them in big chunks but you can cut them whichever size you want. Next add them in the dish as well.

Finally, wash and cut the chicken. Remove the fat and cut it in pieces about 7x7 cm.

Add more salt, pepper and oregano and stir the chicken and the onions. Try to leave the potatoes under everything else to make sure that they will be baked. Add half glass of water. Fold the baking paper to cover the food and wet it to keep it closed.

Place in the oven for 50 minutes. 

Remove and serve! 

Enjoy! 

ps: Because we used the baking sheet the dish will be much easier to clean afterwards!

ps2: vintage roasting dish from Xinaris Home Collection 

Organization of my wardrobe - Part 1

You never really know how many things you have until you actually sit down and try to clean up and tidy your space. So with George moving in and bringing his clothes I tried to make some space for him. I got rid of many clothes I wasn't wearing anymore and threw out many things but still somehow my wardrobes looked over-packed.

I recently came across an article that suggested among other things to use thinner hangers. I found it really interesting so I thought I'd give it a try. In my room there are two wardrobes one meter width each and
1.60 m height of clear space. Additionally I have a 50 cm wardrobe with shelves. Since I am not good at folding clothes most of my and George's need to be hanged.

I therefore went to the supermarket closest to me (Alphamega) and shopped for hangers that were very thin and were invested with fabric to keep clothes from slipping. I bought 16 hangers which cost me 12 euro.

Below is a picture comparing the new hanger's width to the ones that I have been using so far.

The pink one is the new and the velvet-like fabric is very good to keep the clothes from slipping. The black and the wooden ones are what my mom has been using all these years and as a result so did I.

Out of the 34 hangers in my closet I changed the 16. The rest will be soon replaced now that I saw the results :)

So this is the closet before I made any changes.

On top you can see my bags (stacked in the best way possible) and on the right side my new dress wrapped in its white bag. At this point I could not add any more clothes because there was no extra space left.

After 10 minutes or so, this is how it looks now:

This is where I got really excited! There is more space than before and I haven't even changed all the hangers!

Now we can finally have more space for both our clothes and is a great tip since we will soon move out of my parent's house to our own and probably wont have enough space for all our things. But with these hangers I feel more confident that it wont be a problem!

If you are looking for something similar to the hangers I bought here is a link to amazon for similar to the ones I used in this article.
Hangers

Pizza - Easy and Simple

Pizza is one of those foods that you can make using many ingredients - even leftovers. The recipe I am giving you is with ingredients that most people have at home but feel free to use whatever ingredients you like and have lying around.

Base:

Slice bread
Tomato juice
Oregano (optional)
Cheese slices

(quantity is according to your apetite and the size of the tray)

Toppers:

Ham
Sweet corn

How to:

1. Cut the edges of the bread on all sides.

2. Put the bread in the baking tray and make sure there are no gaps. It doesnt have to be perfect :)

3. In a bowl mix the tomato juice and the oregano.

3. Using a spoon put tomato juice on the bread. Make sure that it is covered everywhere.

4. Add the cheese slices on top

5. Add the rest of the ingredients you want. I added the ham and the frozen sweet corn as it was.

6. Bake for 20 minutes at 180 Celsius degrees.

Enjoy with ketchup or mayo :)

Which sofa fits best to your space - Part 1

I've been selling sofas for the past 8 years and from my experience most people who come at the shop are not sure what size fits their space best. There are even cases when people tell me that the sofa they purchased years ago is so wrong for their house that they hate to even sit on it.

A bad choice of sofa can have many negatives; It may not leave enough space for you to walk around, put a proper coffee table, make a small space look even smaller if it's bulky or too big and even limit the amount of people you want to invite over.

I have therefore prepared for you 2 options for one of the most common types of space found in flats or small houses; a wall on one side and a balcony door on the other.

The size for the space I am using is 3.20 m width (the width of the balcony door) x 4 m. In both cases we left access to the balcony. 

The first option is a small corner sofa with a chaiselongue. This allows space for 2-3 people to sit and for one to lie down on the chaiselongue. The size of the sofa for the size of this particular space should ideally be between 

140-160 cm and 220-240 cm.

This type of sofa is good for few people since you get to relax on the chaiselongue while watching TV. It can be an everyday option for a couple who lives alone or a student who has a small flat.

The second option on the other hand is a better option if you want to have more people over and sit around. We used a 3 seater on which 3-4 people can sit and an armchair on the side. The size of the sofa should be between 220-240 cm and the depth 90-100 cm.










It is better in narrow places to leave clear corridors as it makes the room look more tidy and spacious.

Additionally try to use colors in your decoration to create contrast between the items to make it look more light and inviting to the eye. If the sofa is darker, for example, use more light colors and vice versa. In doing so you make the items stand out instead of just blending in.